'Two roads diverged in a wood, and I -- I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.' Robert Frost

Tuesday, April 15, 2014

Gettin' My Food On

Tonight I thought I permanently misplaced one of my cats. Thankfully, I was wrong and therefore have a few spare moments to do something other than freak out and traipse around Charlottetown trying to find a black and white feline. I decided to take these spare moments to do some writing, including a wee blog post (ta da!) and something other yet-to-be-determined prose (I'm going to pull out Julia Cameron's 'The Artist's Way' and try diving in the deep end of the creative writing pool again. Sadly, there is no pool bar because I forgot to stock up on wine, so sobriety it shall be).

It's the middle of April and, thankfully, the snow finally appears to be melting. Today was a superbly warm and sunny day, so I took the opportunity to go for my first outdoor jog of the year. Sunday was the first BBQ of the year and my first ever scooter ride (so much fun that I immediately decided I must visit Greece and become a scooter aficionado). I have to say, getting some Vitamin D via the sunshine really does add an extra shot of energy to the system.

The past month has been rather crazy busy and I'm just now catching my breath and having a chance to relax a little. On April 3rd the MEAL team hosted A Heritage MEAL at the PEI Farm Centre and it appears to have been a smashing success, based on attendance, feedback and the massive amount of food prepared and consumed. There were some bumps in the lead up to the event, namely due to the insane number of storms/blizzards PEI experienced, but we pulled it off in the end. We had some amazing speakers talking about everything from garlic growing to promoting local food through social media to volunteer opportunities with the PEI Food Exchange. I had to suppress a laugh any time someone raved about the oatcakes or gingersnaps, because I was in charge of baking them and totally screwed up the measurement of butter. Apparently butter makes everything better, just like bacon!

So, another successful MEAL under our belts and already there is talk of 'the next MEAL'. Every time I hear those words, I am equal parts excited and terrified. Organizing such an event is so inspiring, I absolutely loved meeting and working with so many awesome people, and I'm moved by the outpouring of support and engagement that the MEALs have garnered. On the other hand, it is a heck of a lot of work and stress. Granted, wine consumption helps with both of those issues. Stay tuned (probably for a long time) to find out if another MEAL is in the works.

Tomorrow I am co-hosting a Lunch N' Learn called 'Taking Charge of Your Health'. My very wonderful friend and mentor, Robert Paterson, is the other host and has been taking charge of his health with great success for a number of years. I, on the other hand, represent the 'struggle' that most of us experience when trying to make better health choices. I feel like I've had many milestones on my 'journey', but this last one (eliminating sugar) has been the game-changer in so many ways. So, tomorrow I will talk about how I managed to finally break the sugar addiction and we will invite attendees to speak about their own experiences, challenges and successes. Both Rob and I feel that it's really important to have a community of support when working towards better eating and living.

Burger Love is back. This year there are 54 restaurants participating. Personally, I think it's a bit much when a pizzeria and an Italian restaurant are serving up burgers, but that's just my opinion. I didn't intend to actually eat any burgers this year, but it seems that every social rendezvous must centre around burger consumption, so I've actually had 4 burgers, but ate twice at the same restaurant, so have only had three different burgers. I highly recommend both The Olympian at the Downtown Deli and M-2 at Mavor's. I was not so enamoured with the one at St. James' Gate, which is, ironically, the one I ate twice. It was OK, but not mind-blowing.

And that concludes another random blog post by moi. It is now too late to start creative writing, so instead I will give kitty cats some snuggles and then go to bed.

My Journey

Food feeds the body, the mind and the soul. It connects everything and yet we are now completely disconnected from it. This, then, is my journey towards food connectedness, understanding interdependence and being independent of the dominant food system.